(7) The
Finance and Public Administration Committee consider the ongoing operation
of the order and report on relevant developments from time to time.

( Agreed to 1 March 2007 upon adoption of recommendation 13 in the Finance
and Public Administration Committee’s second report on the operation
of the Senate order for the production of lists of departmental and
agency contracts (2003-06) .)

Committees

2 Allocation
of departments

Departments
and agencies are allocated to the legislative and general purpose standing
committees as follows:

That
the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee be authorised to hold
a public meeting during the sitting of the Senate on Thursday, 29 March
2007, from 5.30 pm, to take evidence for the committee’s inquiry into
the provisions of the Migration Amendment (Maritime Crew) Bill 2007.

( Agreed to 27 March 2007 .)

5 Migration—Joint
Standing Committee—Authorisation to meet

That
the Joint Standing Committee on Migration be authorised to hold private
meetings otherwise than in accordance with standing order 33(1) during
the sittings of the Senate.

That
the Senate authorise the President, if required, to engage counsel as amicus curiae if either the action for defamation against Mr
David Armstrong or a similar action against Mr William O’Chee is set
down for trial.

( Agreed to 4 September 2000 .)

7 Public Accounts and Audit—Joint Statutory Committee—Authorisation
to meet

That
the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit be authorised to hold
public meetings during the sittings of the Senate:

(a) on
Wednesday, 28 February 2007, from 11.30 am to 1 pm, to take evidence
for the committee’s review of Auditor-General’s reports; and

(b) on
Thursday, 1 March and 29 March 2007, from 10.30 am to 1 pm, and Wednesday,
28 March 2007, from 11.15 am to 1.30 pm, to take evidence for the committee’s
inquiry into financial reporting and equipment acquisition at the Department
of Defence and the Defence Materiel Organisation.

( Agreed to 27 February 2007 .)

8 Substitute
members of committees—Temporary order

That
the following operate as a temporary order until the
conclusion of the 2007 sittings:

If a
member of a committee appointed under standing order 25 is unable to
attend a meeting of the committee, that member may in writing to the
chair of the committee appoint a participating member to act as a substitute
member of the committee at that meeting. If the member is incapacitated
or unavailable, a letter to the chair of a committee appointing a participating
member to act as a substitute member of the committee may be signed
on behalf of the member by the leader of the party or group on whose
nomination the member was appointed to the committee.

( Agreed to 7 February 2007 .)

9 Treaties—Joint
Standing Committee—Authorisation to meet

That
the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties be authorised to hold private
meetings otherwise than in accordance with standing order 33(1) during
the sittings of the Senate.

( Agreed to 18 October 2006 .)

10 Unauthorised
disclosure of committee proceedings

That the following order operate
as a sessional order:

(1) The
Senate confirms that any disclosure of evidence or documents submitted
to a committee, of documents prepared by a committee, or of deliberations
of a committee, without the approval of the committee or of the Senate,
may be treated by the Senate as a contempt.

(2) The
Senate reaffirms its resolution of 20 June 1996, relating to procedures
to be followed by committees in cases of unauthorised disclosure of
committee proceedings.

(3) The
Senate provides the following guidelines to be observed by committees
in applying that resolution, and declares that the Senate will observe
the guidelines in determining whether to refer a matter to the Committee
of Privileges:

1. Unless
there are particular circumstances involving actual or potential substantial
interference with the work of a committee or of the Senate, the following
kinds of unauthorised disclosure should not be raised as matters of
privilege:

(a) disclosure of a committee report
in the time between the substantial conclusion of the committee's deliberations
on the report and its presentation to the Senate;

(b) disclosure
of other documents prepared by a committee and not published by the
committee, where the committee would have published them, or could appropriately
have published them, in any event, or where they contain only research
or publicly-available material, or where their disclosure is otherwise
inconsequential;

(c) disclosure
of documents and evidence submitted to a committee and not published
by the committee, where the committee would have published them, or
could appropriately have published them, in any event;

(d) disclosure
of private deliberations of a committee where the freedom of the committee
to deliberate is unlikely to be significantly affected.

2. The
following kinds of unauthorised disclosure are those for which the contempt
jurisdiction of the Senate should primarily be reserved, and which should
therefore be raised as matters of privilege:

(a) disclosure
of documents or evidence submitted to a committee where the committee
has deliberately decided to treat the documents or evidence as in camera
material, for the protection of witnesses or others, or because disclosure
would otherwise be harmful to the public interest;

(b) disclosure
of documents prepared by a committee where that involves disclosure
of material of the kind specified in paragraph (a);

(c) disclosure
of private deliberations of a committee where that involves disclosure
of that kind of material, or significantly impedes the committee's freedom
to deliberate.

3. An
unauthorised disclosure not falling into the categories in guidelines
1 and 2 should not be raised as a matter of privilege unless it involves
actual or potential substantial interference with the work of a committee
or of the Senate.

4. When
considering any unauthorised disclosure of material in the possession
of a committee, the committee should consider whether there was any
substantive reason for not publishing that material.

(4) Before
deciding to raise a matter of privilege involving possible unauthorised
disclosure of committee proceedings, any committee may seek the guidance
of the Committee of Privileges as to whether a matter should be pursued.
If the committee decides that such a matter should be raised, it must
consult with the Committee of Privileges before taking the matter further.

(5) When
applying this resolution a committee shall have regard to the matters
set out in paragraphs 3.43 to 3.59 of the 122nd Report of the Committee
of Privileges, June 2005.

( Agreed to 6 October 2005 upon adoption of a recommendation of the
Procedure Committee in its first report of 2005 .)

Estimates

11 2005-06
Budget estimates—Answers to questions

That
answers be provided by 31 January 2005 to:

(a) estimates
questions on notice lodged with legislation committees in the course
of the estimates hearings in May and June 2004; and

(b) estimates
questions on notice lodged with legislation committees by 2 December
2004.

( Agreed to 18 November 2004 .)

12 2006-07
Budget estimates—Answers to questions

The
dates set by legislation committees for answering questions taken on
notice during the 2006-07 Budget estimates are as follows:

Group
A:

Environment,
Communications,

Information Technology and the Arts Friday, 28 July
2006

Finance
and Public Administration Friday, 7 July 2006

Legal
and Constitutional Friday, 14 July 2006

Rural
and Regional Affairs and Transport Thursday, 13 July 2006

Group
B:

Community
Affairs Friday, 28 July 2006

Economics Friday,
28 July 2006

Employment,
Workplace Relations and

Education Friday, 28 July 2006

Foreign
Affairs, Defence and Trade Thursday, 27 July 2006.

Standing
order 74(5) takes effect 30 days after these dates.

13 2006-07
Supplementary Budget estimates—Answers to questions

The
dates set by standing committees for answering questions taken on notice
during the 2006-07 Supplementary Budget estimates are as follows:

Group
A:

Environment,
Communications,

Information Technology and the Arts Friday, 15 December

2006

Finance
and Public Administration Friday, 15 December

2006

Legal
and Constitutional Affairs Wednesday,

13 December
2006

Rural
and Regional Affairs and Transport Tuesday, 12 December

2006

Group
B:

Community
Affairs Friday, 15 December

2006

Economics Friday,
15 December

2006

Employment, Workplace Relations and

Education Friday, 15 December

2006

Foreign
Affairs, Defence and Trade Thursday, 14 December

2006.

Standing
order 74(5) takes effect 30 days after these dates.

14 2006-07
Additional estimates—Answers to questions

The
dates set by standing committees for answering questions taken on notice
during the 2006-07 additional estimates are as follows:

Group
A:

Community
Affairs Friday, 30 March 2007

Environment,
Communications,

Information Technology and the Arts Wednesday, 4 April

2007

Finance
and Public Administration Friday, 30 March 2007

Legal
and Constitutional Affairs Friday, 30 March 2007

Group
B:

Economics Thursday,
5 April 2007

Employment,
Workplace Relations and

Education Friday, 30 March 2007

Foreign
Affairs, Defence and Trade Thursday, 29 March

2007

Rural
and Regional Affairs and Transport Thursday, 5 April 2007.

Standing
order 74(5) takes effect 30 days after these dates.

15 2006-07
Additional estimates—2007-08 Budget estimates—Hearings

That—

(1) …

(2) Estimates
hearings by legislative and general purpose standing committees for
2007 be scheduled as follows:

2006-07
additional estimates:

Monday,
12 February and Tuesday, 13 February and, if required, Friday, 16 February
( Group A )

Wednesday,
14 February and Thursday, 15 February and, if required, Friday, 16 February
( Group B ).

2007-08
Budget estimates:

Monday,
21 May to Thursday, 24 May ( Group A )

Monday,
28 May to Thursday, 31 May ( Group B )

Monday,
12 November and Tuesday, 13 November ( supplementary hearings—Group A )

(2) That,
after the motion for the second reading of the Superannuation Legislation
Amendment (Simplification) Bill 2007 and four related bills has been
moved, they may be taken together for their remaining stages with the
Tax Laws Amendment (Simplified Superannuation) Bill 2006 and five related
bills.

( Agreed to 27 February 2007 .)

17 Senate consideration—Variation

That
the provisions of paragraphs (5) to (8) of standing order 111 not apply
to the following bills, allowing them to be considered during this period
of sittings:

If a
division is called for on Thursday after 4.30 pm, the matter before
the Senate shall be adjourned until the next day of sitting at a time
fixed by the Senate.

( Agreed to 10 August 2006 .)

21 Adjournment debate on Tuesdays—Temporary order

That
the following operate as a temporary order until the conclusion of the
2007 sittings:

On the
question for the adjournment of the Senate on Tuesday, a senator who
has spoken once subject to the time limit of 10 minutes may speak again
for not more than 10 minutes if no other senator who has not already
spoken once wishes to speak, provided that a senator may by leave speak
for not more than 20 minutes on one occasion.

( Agreed to 6 February 2007 .)

Orders for production of documents

22 Trade—Free
trade agreement—Order for production of documents

That
there be laid on the table by the Minister representing the Minister
for Trade, no later than 4 pm on Tuesday, 7 December 2004, the final letters
and any attachments and annexures exchanged between the governments
of Australia and the United States of America (US) to finalise the free
trade agreement between Australia and the US.

( Motion of Senator Nettle agreed to 2 December 2004 .)

23 Foreign
Affairs—Gallipoli—Road works—Order for production of documents

That
there be laid on the table by the Minister for Defence, no later than
Thursday, 12 May 2005, all briefings to the Minister and the Minister
for Veterans’ Affairs, on the matter of road works at Gallipoli over
the past 4 years, and all internal minutes and file notes, including
records of meetings between the Office of Australian War Graves and
officials of the Government of Turkey on the same subject.

( Motion of Senator Bishop agreed to 11 May 2005 .)

24 Family
and Community Services—Housing Assistance agreements—Order for production
of documents

(1) That
the Senate:

(a) notes
that the Housing Assistance (Form of Agreement) Determination 2003 in
Schedule 1, subsections 4(33) to 4(36) requires states to report on expenditure
and progress towards their respective bilateral agreements to the Commonwealth
within 6 months after the end of each grant year;

(b) orders
that there be laid on the table, no later than 3.30 pm on 12 May 2005,
all reports provided by the states and territories to the Commonwealth
under those provisions for the financial year 2003-04; and

(c) orders
that all reports provided by the states and territories to the Commonwealth
under those provisions be tabled in the Senate within 5 sittings days,
or one calendar month, after receipt (whichever is the later), and that
the Senate be notified in writing by the Minister for Family and Community
Services within 5 sitting days of the expiration of the 6 months if
reports have not been provided within the required 6 months.

(2) That this order is of continuing
effect.

( Motion of Senator Bartlett agreed to 12 May 2005 .)

25 Environment—Tasmania—Proposed
pulp mill—Order for production of documents

That
there be laid on the table by the Minister for the Environment and Heritage,
no later than 3.30 pm on 16 June 2005, all correspondence from January
2002 to the present between the Minister, his staff and department and
Gunns Pty Ltd relating to the proposed pulp mill in Tasmania.

( Motion of the Leader of the Australian Greens (Senator Bob Brown)
agreed to 12 May 2005 .)

26 Environment—Tasmania—Proposed
pulp mill—Order for production of documents

That
there be laid on the table by the Minister representing the Prime Minister,
no later than 3.30 pm on 22 June 2005, all correspondence from January
2002 to the present between the Prime Minister, his staff and department
and Gunns Pty Ltd relating to the proposed pulp mill in Tasmania.

( Motion of the Leader of the Australian Greens (Senator Bob Brown)
agreed to 14 June 2005 .)

27 Law
and Justice—Airport security—Order for production of documents

That
there be laid on the table by the Minister for Justice and Customs,
no later than 5 pm on Monday, 20 June 2005, copies of all reports prepared
by the Australian Customs Service since 1 January 2004 which refer to
issues of airport security, including the report completed in September
2004, referred to on page 1 of The Australian on 31 May 2005 (‘Airport staff “smuggling drugs”’),
other than material specifically relating to current ongoing investigations.

( Motion of the Leader of the Australian Democrats (Senator Allison)
agreed to 20 June 2005 .)

28 Taxation—Deductible
gift recipient status—Environment groups—Order for production of
documents

That
there be laid on the table by the Minister for the Environment and Heritage,
no later than 3.30 pm on Wednesday, 22 June 2005, all correspondence
between the Minister and the Assistant Treasurer, the Australian Taxation
Office, or the Institute of Public Affairs in 2004 and 2005 relating
to the issue of deductible gift recipient status of environment groups.

( Motion of the Leader of the Australian Greens (Senator Bob Brown)
agreed to 21 June 2005 .)

Orders for production of documents still current from
previous parliaments

Date of order

Subject

Addressed to

25.10.19 95

Administrative decision-making—Effect of international instruments

Minister representing the Attorney-General

13.05.1998

Waterfront reform

Minister representing the Minister for Transport and Regional Development
(Senator Alston);

Minister representing the Minister for Workplace Relations
and Small Business (Senator Alston); and